Welcome aboard, Gabriel!

Yesterday we welcomed a new member of the Jewish community – Gabriel Max Roher-Smith – with a ritual brit at the home of his parents. I was pleased to be able to make this papercut marking the date of his birth and to present it to his parents at the simcha.

The rainbow bands are made of cut-up comics featuring (in descending order) Spider-Man, The Thing, Kid Flash, Hulk, and Superman.

Join me this Sunday for "Sacred Words, Sacred Texts" opening reception

Please join me this Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles from two to five p.m. for the opening reception of “Sacred Words, Sacred Texts” – an exhibition in collaboration with American Jewish University,
USC Hillel and Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion/LA.

It's a group show featuring artists from around the world, and I am pleased to have 12 papercuts included, many on loan from local collectors.

The reception starts at 2 pm at Hebrew Union College (3077 University Avenue, Los Angeles – 213 749 3424) and at some point wanders down to the USC site for dessert.

For details, visit the Facebook invitation page – and please "like" my fan page to get regular updates in your Facebook feed.

The exhibition runs through mid-December 2013.

"Sacred Words, Sacred Texts" features twelve B2 papercuts; please join me at the reception.

Please join me in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 13, from two to five pm, for the opening reception of “Sacred Words, Sacred Texts” – an exhibition in collaboration with American Jewish University,
USC Hillel and Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion/LA.

I am pleased to have 12 papercuts included in this exciting exhibition, many on loan from local collectors.

The reception starts at 2 pm at Hebrew Union College (3077 University Avenue, Los Angeles – 213 749 3424) and at some point wanders down to the USC site for dessert.

For details, visit the Facebook invitation page – and please "like" my fan page to get regular updates in your Facebook feed.

The exhibition runs through mid-December 2013.

Telling stories by cutting paper... at camp

Two weeks ago I posted about what I do every summer at URJ Camp Newman – teaching kids to cut paper. Last week I posted about the campers' first projects: mizrach plaques. This is the third of my four posts about cutting paper at Camp Newman, and this one is about the big project: paper midrash.

Bereshit

All of the campers in the two-hours-a-day yetzirah group (and many in the one-hour-a-day hizdamnut group) made "paper midrash" – they used their newly-developed papercutting skills to tell a story from the Tanakh (Torah, prophets, and writings) or midrash, picking a story or theme that was personally meaningful and interpreting it in this medium.

Eden

The Giants

The Rainbow

Parting the Sea

David and Goliath: Kavannah

Samson

Others had more esoteric sources for their work, pulling ideas from Sefer haAgaddah or other books that I brought for inspiration.

Claws

Dwarvish

Li

Mad Man

Pillar of Fire

Time

Sus

Next time – my last post about the camp workshops – will feature photos of the finished group projects which we made as a gift for camp.

Inundación

This is "Inundación," a new papercut I'm premiering this Saturday night at Brave New World Comics, as part of my new show: "You did WHAT to my comics?!?"

The story of the flood pervades many cultures across the globe. "Inundación" draws from Biblical narrative and Mesoamerican iconography, backed almost entirely by cut-up pieces from the 2008 trade edition of Jack Kirby’s mid-70s comic book series "The Eternals." The one exception is a snippet of text from LIFE Nature Library: The Sea published by Time-Life Books in 1972.

For more details about the show, click here.

"Rainbow Over Ararat" adapted for tallit-like garment

It's raining, so this feels like a great post to put up today.

Last spring I created a Noah's Ark papercut titled "Rainbow Over Ararat" as a donation for the annual Temple Ahavat Shalom Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) fundraising luncheon.

I was contacted a short while ago by some folks at St Thomas' Church, Stockton Heath, in the United Kingdom. They were welcoming a new curate with a stole for her to wear, and wanted to make something with Noah's Ark as a theme. Joanne Ridley, the seamstress-artist, asked if she could use my papercut as a basis for the design. She offered to make a donation to the ECEC, and I said "go for it," and she's just finished it. That's the new curate, Lore Chumbley, wearing it in the photo above.

(The church TOTALLY looks like the Platonic ideal of an "old English church" and is, apparently, of historical interest.)

Here's what Joanne said about the process of making the stole:

Briefly, I tacked all the fabrics onto a foundation of muslin, then covered each "join" with a very narrow strip of white bias binding to replicate the papercut. I layered this up like a quilt and quilted through everything to hold it all in place then I (heart in mouth) cut it into the two pieces needed for the stole, sewed those together at the back neck edge and finally bound the edge with blue fabric to match the sky.  I did extend the waves downwards to make the balance right for the stole's length.

I think it's a beautiful adaptation of my work, and I'm so proud they wanted to use it. Here are some photos taken while the stole was being made, and one of the original papercut.

 

New papercut: "Higher and Higher"

As I teased in an earlier post, I've been working on a new papercut inspired by the seventh chapter of Bereshit... here's a photo of it on my table (click it to see it larger).


Tentatively titled "Higher and Higher" -- named for one of the snippets of text in the background -- this papercut shows Noah's ark being raised by the uprushing "fountains of the deep" described in the Torah, while flooding rains fall from the sky.

The background is made up of a selection of grayscale and limited-palette comics, pages from a 1946 book of biblical commentary titled Pathways Through the Bible (which I rescued from the genizah box at our synagogue), and a photograph from an old National Geographic magazine.

Here are some close-up shots.

Rainbow Over Ararat

I just completed this Noah's Ark papercut titled "Rainbow Over Ararat" as a donation for the Temple Ahavat Shalom ECEC (Early Childhood Education Center) Brunch & Boutique this Sunday, April 10. They're having an auction to raise money for the school, and this papercut is one of the available items.

The ark has landed on Mount Ararat and, as the flood waters recede, a rainbow appears in the sky -- signifying God's promise to never flood the earth again. (No comment here on the potential effects of global warming.)

As with all of my current work, the piece is backed by cut-up comics. In this case, comics from all over the spectrum, with lots of characters and artist styles throughout.

Very colorful, very bright and cheerful... if you're interested in acquiring the papercut (not a print -- the original cut), click here.

New papercut on the table: Revisiting the Flood

Two details from the papercut currently on the table in my studio -- trying some new things with text in the background, and I'm very pleased with how it's coming along.

"You did WHAT ... ?!?" featured on Proxart Blog

There's a good feature on my work and the show at Brave New World Comics on the Proxart blog today -- enjoy!

The Raven: In-progress sketch

Working on a raven papercut, based on the Noah story in Bereshit: "And he sent forth a Raven, and it went forth and to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth." The rabbis have a lot of fun with what "to and fro" could really be about -- is it about the raven arguing back and forth with Noah? Is it related to the idea that the raven found a fresh corpse to alight upon and never returned to the ark, hence requiring Noah to release another bird -- the dove? The raven is a tricky bird...

The look of the raven is being driven by Native American representations of the trickster-god Raven, and I'm still working on the background textures. I assure you, loyal fans, it will involve comic books in some way. And if I finish it in time, you can see the final at my upcoming show at Brave New World Comics.

More details on the show are available here.

"You did WHAT to my comics?" -- Details on Show at Brave New World

“You did WHAT to my comics?”
Fine Art Mash-up ∙ New Work by Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik

Opening Reception at Brave New World Comics
on Saturday, September 11, from 7 to 10 pm

Show Open from September 11 through October 9

Brave New World Comics
22722 Lyons Avenue
Newhall, CA 91321
661-259-4745

Brynjegard-Bialik Papercuts in Two Upcoming SoCal Shows

I've got a one-man show at Brave New World Comics in Santa Clarita opening on Saturday, September 11 (through October 9). I've also got four pieces in the fall show at the Finegood Gallery at the West Valley Jewish Community Center; that show opens on September 2, with an artists' reception on Sunday, September 12. Click the card image above to enlarge it for full details.

The image is a detail from "Fountains of the Deep." In Bereshit/Genesis 7:11 we read that "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the deep came bursting through, and the windows of heaven were opened."

"The Flood and the Rainbow"in local fundraiser auction

Tomorrow Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge (California) is hosting a luncheon for its Early Childhood Education Center, including a fundraiser auction. My papercut "The Flood and the Rainbow" (framed really nicely!) will be available for bidding -- click here for details.

Paper Midrash:Fountains of the Deep

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the deep came bursting through, and the windows of heaven were opened.” (Bereshit/Genesis 7:11).

This is a different take on Noah's Ark -- different for me, at least. Instead of focusing on the rains falling from above, I'm looking at the waters from below. In verse 7:17 we read, "the waters increased, and bore up the ark" -- and so it is here. Still finalizing the colors a bit, but it's pretty close to complete. And check out this detail shot.


Comics fans, be on the lookout for work by Jack Kirby, John Romita Jr., Alex Ross, Steve Ditko, and more -- pieces of The Punisher, The Avengers, Spider-Man, Superboy, Aquaman, Batman ... oh, so much good stuff!

If you like this and want to see more like it IN PERSON, please go check out my show called "Paper Midrash" at the Merage Jewish Community of Orange County through February 26. More details are available on my website.

Make Yourself an Ark(Paper Midrash)

Taking a break from showing the comics work I'm producing to feature this Noah's Ark piece titled after the biblical injunction from God to Noah: "Make Yourself An Ark." It's a play on the old plastic model kits I used to enjoy when I was a kid, when every piece was connected to every other piece on these spindly plastic frames.

In the piece you can see Noah and his wife, as well as their three sons and daughters-in-law. Why all the serving dishes? Because Noah had to feed each animal its own particular kind of food, in its own way. As for that glowing sphere above the ladder...? You'll have to come to the opening reception for my show and ask me in person what it means.

The show will be at the Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County from January 24 through February 27, 2010: "Paper Midrash: New Work by Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik." The opening reception will be from 2 to 5 p.m. on January 24.

The Flood(Paper Midrash)

This is actually a piece from about a month ago -- another in my series of comic textures. This time, using them to convey the deluge from above as Noah pilots his ark along the raging seas. My favorite touch is the "sploosh" you can just see peeking out from behind the ark.

The show will be at the Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County from January 24 through February 27, 2010: "Paper Midrash: New Work by Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik." The opening reception will be from 2 to 5 p.m. on January 24.

Noah's Ark and the Collapse of Linearity

At the urging of David Lynch, I'm sharing a recent piece that's probably going to wind up in my upcoming show in January 2010 at the Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County. It's a double cut focused on Noah's Ark, which collapses the narrative and eliminates the linear flow of time through which lens we humans usually view history -- so in viewing this piece we experience the flood and the rainbow covenant simultaneously.

As usual, the work is copyright 2009 by Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik.

Noah's Ark Papercut:"The Waters Increased"

I cut this piece as a donation for the 2009 Temple Ahavat Shalom (TAS) Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) luncheon and silent auction, its annual fundraiser.

I tried to do something true to my artistic vision (did I type that? really?) but also that would potentially bring in some cash for the synagogue. So I've got my patterns in there, of course, but it's very obvious in its subject matter.

The verse is Bereshit (Genesis) 7:17: "The waters increased and lifted the ark, and so it rose over the ground."